Chennai: In a dramatic turn on the last day of filing of nominations for the June 27 Rajya Sabha polls, Jayalalithaa on Monday announced her party's support to CPI's candidate and withdrawal of one party candidate.

After much dilly-dallying, the principal opposition party DMDK also entered the poll fray with its candidate AR Elangovan filing his nomination.

In a statement issued, Chief Minister and AIADMK's chief Jayalalithaa, referring to the appeal for support from the CPI leadership, announced her party's support for D Raja, the sitting Rajya Sabha member.

She also announced that one of the five AIADMK candidates, K Thangamuthu, would withdraw his nomination. Prior to the filing of his nomination, Raja, along with CPI's senior leaders, met Jayalalithaa and sought her party's support.

Jayalalithaa who had earlier announced that the party will not be able to support any other party in the Rajya Sabha polls, changed her mind after meeting the CPI delegation.

Raja also has the support of another left party, CPI-M, having eight members in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.